Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, LeEco Le 2, Freedom 251 and other leading smartphones released this year

The year 2016 has been full of interesting smartphones. Here's our list of this year's trendsetters and the impact they will have.

Jul 8, 2016 13:55 IST

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Amid the bounty of smartphones that were launched this year, a few, we believe, are on the path toward something bigger. Here's our list of 2016's landmark phones and why we think they're on to something.

Freedom 251

The whole world was sceptical when Ringing Bells announced that their first device was going to cost less than lunch for one at some places â€” Rs. 251. But now Ringing bells is ready to deliver the Freedom 251 to people who pre-booked it.

With the Freedom 251, Ringing Bells wants to put a smartphone in every pocket. The move may just mark the beginning of perhaps the biggest price war in the smartphone in the market.

LeEco Le 2

While the Le 2 seems like yet another encased-in-metal, mid-range smartphone made in China, it's also the first in India to ditch the 3.5mm jack and pick the USB-C port as the audio out. While audiophiles would complain that charging their smartphone while listening to music is no longer a possibility, once they try the technology out for themselves, they'd probably see it as an appropriate trade off. LeEco packs a pair of their CDLA earphones with each Le 2 smartphone and we were impressed with how different the sound is. While many may complain that removing the 3.5mm jack is not a bright idea, we do expect to see devices, which allow users to listen to music via the USB-C port as well as the 3.5mm jack, much like how the Nexus 6P does.

The mid-range phone that went premium, the Redmi Note 3 is probably what one gets when a flagship is merged with economy. Finished in metal, but boasting of only modest specifications, the Redmi Note 3 broke away from Xiaomi's practice of encasing its mid-range phones in plastic. We expect the Redmi Note 3, along with LeEco's devices, to spark a trend among other smartphone-makers to offer premium build quality in their budget devices.

While it won't be the first smartphone camera in India with two lenses â€” the LG G5 takes that crown â€” the Huawei P9, in our opinion, was the device that got the world talking about why two lenses are better than one. Sure, the devices is mired in controversy, ranging from Leica's involvement in the development of the camera to Huawei allegedly putting up images shot with a Canon 5D Mark III and acting like it was shot on the P9, but at the end of the day, it serves as an important device. While the applications for twin-lens cameras may be many, Huawei picked the road leading up to better images. While one sensor captures colours, the other focuses on brightness and tonality, and the phone then merges the two to create a high quality image. Getting better-quality images out of a smartphone has been pursued by many. Nokia made the 808 PureView, while Panasonic threw a 1-inch sensor and called the CM-1 a connected camera, but with the P9, Huawei has definitely done something different.